


Pretty Lucky

by aintweproudriff



Series: Race, Spot, Albert, and Elmer [2]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, Multi, Prompt Fill, angst and fluff spralmer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-05 13:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12191019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: Prompt fill: In between "First Friday of Every Month" and "Fo(u)r Now and Forever" when they met, fell in love with, and start dating Elmer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AAA I'm so busy honestly yall wow. Anyway, I really hope you like this one, I think it'll be fun to write. Also whoops I have another fic to finish.

Elmer read the name on the slip of paper stuck to the door, and knew he was fucked. Of course, he was rooming with Sean Conlon. Why not? After all, teachers had paired them together all throughout high school. Spot, the stupidly adorable troublemaker and Elmer, the one who could have killed a person and batted his eyes to get out of it. In hindsight, what were those teachers thinking? And in the moment, what was the person in charge of rooms thinking, placing Elmer in the same dorm room as motherfucking Spot Conlon. 

He set his hand on his doorknob, took a breath of the stuffy hallway air, and stepped inside. 

“Elmer! Hey man!” Spot laughed, throwing a pillow on his bed to clap Elmer on the back and take one of the many bags he was carrying. 

Yep, Elmer was pretty much fucked. How did someone get hotter when you hadn’t seen them for a month? He had to resist every urge in his body that told him to just stare at his new roommate’s face.

“Hi Spot, how are ya?” Elmer blushed, and turned to set the rest of his bags on the open bed. 

“I’m great,” Spot nodded, biting his lower lip. “Pretty lucky that we ended up together, huh? ‘Stead of with some random guy we’ve never met.”

Elmer turned around to face Spot and get a better picture of what the room looked like. It, unlike Spot, wasn’t much to see. 

“Yeah, pretty great. I wasn’t too worried though, we pretty much know half the people at this school.”

“True. Loads of kids here from high school.”

Elmer nodded, turning back around to make his bed. 

“No offense, though, Elmer, but Race and Albert are together just down the hall, and I’m kinda pissed I’m not with one of them. I mean, really? They get to room with one of their boyfriends and I don’t? Unfair.”

Somehow, Elmer managed to hide his grimace with a laugh. 

“You guys. How will you three ever be apart?” he rolled his eyes at Spot. Really, who could blame them? He’d want to be with them all the time too if he was dating any one of the-

No. He was rooming with one of them now, and the three of them were happy enough without anyone else. So he had to get over whatever these high school feelings were, and just live with the fact of the matter the best he could. 

Of course, it was easy enough to say that when he wasn’t looking at Spot. As soon as he turned around again, it was like highschool all over again. Specifically, the day he and Spot had been lab partners for biology and Elmer had spilled water all over the desk after seeing Spot’s smile. 

“How uh-” he bit his tongue. “How are Race and Albert doing? I haven’t seen them since graduation.”

“They’re good, they’re doin’ alright,” Spot smiled, looking at the door to the dorm room in the direction of his boyfriends’ room, as if he could see them all the way down the hall. “Race is studyin’ some astrophysics shit, and Al’s not quite sure yet, but he’s really happy.”

“I didn’t know we had degrees like astrophysics here,” Elmer raised his eyebrows. 

“Well, we don’t really. Race is gonna do some physics stuff here, and then he wants to get another degree somewhere else. But uh,” Spot’s dimple showed. “He didn’t wanna leave us quite yet.”

Elmer did his best to look disapproving.

“Shut up,” Spot swung his arm at Elmer, missing by a wide enough margin that it was obvious he hadn’t wanted to hit him. 

A head peeked through the door. “Who’s shutting up?”

“Hey Race,” Spot beamed at the doorway. “Elmer’s shutting up, and he’s not gonna tease any of us for bein’ in a gross relationship.”

Albert followed Race into the room. “But we are in a gross relationship, right?”

“Absolutely we are,” Race smiled. “How are you, Elmer? Been a while.”

“Yeah it has,” Elmer could feel his heart pumping when Race’s hand touched his shoulder, and when Albert grinned. “I’m doin’ okay, how ‘bout you?”

“You know what? I’m bored,” Spot looked around the undecorated room. “And I don’t wanna do work. But I brought plenty of movies, and I already got Netflix set up. Who wants to watch a movie?”

“Are you suggesting we Netflix and Chill, Spot?” Albert pecked at Spot’s cheek. 

“No, no,” Spot kissed him back. “Just Netflix. At least, just Netflix while Elmer’s here.”

“Am I invited to the movie? Or am I gettin’ kicked out?” Elmer tilted his head. God, if he was going to get kicked out of his own room this year so the three people he had crushes on could have sex, he was going to lose it. 

“You’re invited to the movie, but nothin’ else!” Race grabbed Spot’s hoodie from off his bed and sat on it, ignoring any of Spot’s protests. 

Elmer was going to be fine.  
-

Elmer was not actually fine, something he would realize over and over during the coming weeks. Days passed in which Elmer, Spot, Race, and Albert explored the campus, and then retreated back to a dorm room to watch a movie. They spent the entire week leading up to classes together, and Elmer enjoyed it a little too much for his own good. 

There were three situations, and he couldn’t be sure which one was worst.  
Sometimes, he was with Spot, Race, and Albert, and he was trying not to become a blushing, giggling mess over how much he liked them.  
Other times, he was hanging out with Spot in their dorm room, usually right before they went to bed, and Spot was missing the other two. Elmer had to stop himself from shouting that he missed them too, but that Elmer was right there if Spot wanted to kiss someone.  
The last situation was when Elmer was alone. It didn’t happen often, not more than four times in the entire week, but it sucked the most. Spot would be hanging out with his boyfriends in their room, and Elmer wasn’t invited for obvious reasons. This was when Elmer could finally think: about how far gone he was for these boys, about why they didn’t like him back, and about how immature he was for not being able to get over this. They had a great time without him, he was sure. And why should he interfere with that?

-

Spot, Race, and Albert piled onto the tiny couch in Spot and Elmer’s dorm room, appropriating each others laps in a desperate attempt to get comfortable. Elmer took a seat on his bed as the movie started, not at all willing to involve himself in that physical and emotional mess. 

The movie may have been funny, Elmer couldn’t really tell. Not only could he only see half the screen because of the three boys in a loveseat in his way, he also couldn’t hear over the sound of said boys’ flirting. Apparently, this was how they did things; watched a movie, flirted, and eventually abandoned all talking for the sake of making out.  
The second the kissing started, Elmer stood up, straight as a rail. 

“I’m gonna go get some snacks from the vending machine,” he stuttered out. “Anyone want anything?”

Albert groaned and pulled away. “Oh, yeah, some of those chocolate chip cookies!”

“Cheese puffs?” Race’s blue eyes looked over the top of the chair. 

“Alright sounds good. Spot?” he asked, grabbing his wallet. Spot didn’t respond, and Elmer left without looking back to see what had him so preoccupied. 

He walked down to the vending machine, blinking his eyes as fast as he could to avoid letting tears out of them. Punching in the numbers, he chided himself for what he had been thinking. Those were boys that wouldn’t want to be with him. 

“How many times have I heard about a third wheel?” he laughed quietly. “Ironic to be a fourth wheel.”

With his arms full of junk food, enough to keep himself sane for the rest of the night, and enough for everyone else to eat some too, Elmer headed back to the room. 

“I don’t know,” he heard from behind the door. “You really think we should tell him?”

“Yeah I think so. I mean, we’ve talked about it enough that-”

“What if he don’t feel the same though?”

“He’s gotta. I know he’s gotta.”


	2. Chapter 2

Elmer didn’t know what to think, and he certainly didn’t know how to breathe. Three voices considering something, considering someone. Someone who may have been him, but could have truly been anyone. Anyone more attractive, funnier, smarter, or more dateable than him.   
He felt something in his hand crunch, and looked down to realize he’d smashed some of the chips he was holding. Okay. There were a few ways to handle this, and while running away sounded nice, he knew it couldn’t last forever. 

His muscle memory took his hand to the doorknob and turned it for him. His feet moved inside, and there was no stopping himself now. 

“Alrighty, cookies for Albert and cheese puffs for Race,” he threw the packages in the direction of the chair, never actually looking at the boys, and giving it his best guess as to where they were sat. That may have been why he didn’t actually notice how they were sitting. 

Race, Spot, and Albert were no longer tangled together in the chair. Instead they were sat up straight. Their faces weren’t pressed together, but their hands were, and Race’s mouth was still open, as if he’d been mid-sentence. The three of them looked up at Elmer, and a collective look of resolution passed over their faces. 

“Hey, Elmer?” Spot hopped off the couch. “Do you want to like, come sit with us?”

“Hm? I, uh, no thanks,” Elmer managed to say as he sat down. “I’m alright where I am.”

Race followed Spot off the chair. “Are you sure? Can you see okay?” He sat down next to Elmer, his hand brushing Elmer’s leg as he did so. “There’s no way you can see the screen at all, man. Move up with us.”

“No, really,” Elmer insisted. “I’m good. Besides, last I saw, you three were gettin’ up to somethin’ that I’m not invited to at all.”

Albert’s head popped up next, so abruptly that his voice caused Race to jump. 

“Listen guys,” he said to his boyfriends. “Obviously you’re not bein’ direct enough. Elmer, come here. It’s not really a question anymore.”

Elmer, taken aback, did what Albert told him to do without another word. Behind him, he thought he heard one of the other boys whisper, “Al what the fuck?”

He took his place next to Albert, and the other boys followed him. 

“Sorry about that, Elmer,” Albert apologized. “But uh, I think we wanna talk to you about somethin’.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

“What’s up?” Elmer asked, pulling at the sleeves of his hoodie without realizing. 

“Well, y’know,” Spot started. The Great Spot Conlon, nervous to say something. “The three of us, we uh-”

Race’s determination to get the words out got the best of him. “We like you a lot, Elmer. And we didn’t want to not say somethin’, because we don’t like keepin’ secrets from our friends. But uh, also because we weren’t sure-”

“-if you liked us back or not,” Spot, never one to be outdone, finished Race’s sentence. 

Elmer stared at the people around him. “What?” he gaped. 

“I’d be surprised if you said you hadn’t noticed how much we’d been flirting with you the past week, to be honest,” Race laughed, but his face grew serious. “Seriously. I know it’s been a little more than a week, and that’s not long. But I think I like havin’ you around, and I know the other guys do too.”

“I think so,” Spot closed his eyes, and Elmer could hear him willing his voice to keep its confident tone. “We feel more complete when we’re with you. I can’t explain it right, but that’s how I feel.”

Elmer was able to speak again, and he was sure he mixed up his words because of the malfunction in his brain. “You’re not kidding? If you are kiddin’, then the three of you get to live together after all because I will kick Spot out of this room.”

“We’re not kiddin’. We wouldn’t mess with you about somethin’ like this,” Race said, reaching to grab Elmer’s hand but changing his mind and grabbing Spot’s instead. 

Elmer’s eyes turned from looking at Race and Spot to looking at Albert. 

“Albert, is that somethin’ you want too? Because I don’t want to start something that not all of you want,” Elmer’s eyebrows knitted together. 

Albert sighed. ““I don’t know much; it’s been a long time since I’ve had feelings for anyone other than Spot and Race. What I’m sure I know, though, is that I love these two. And when you love someone, you want what they want. They want you, Elmer, and I do too.”

“Oh my god. This- is too much. This is what I’ve wanted for, god, forever. So if you guys are fucking with me at all.”

“We’re not fucking with you, El,” Spot took a leap of faith and took Elmer’s hand. “We just want to know if this is somethin’ you’ve thought about too.”

“Of course I’ve thought about it, it’s what I’ve thought about for years! You three, wow. I honestly didn’t think you’d ever think-”

Spot’s lips met Elmer’s in half a second. Without giving him time to react, Spot pulled away.   
“Oh my god I’m so sorry I didn’t think I just wanted to-”

Elmer’s mind was on one track, and one track only. He wanted more of what had just happened, and he wanted more of it for as long as he could get it. So he pulled Spot back in to kiss him, and then Race, and Spot again. 

Albert had smiled and kissed Race’s forehead while Spot and Elmer kissed, and then Spot’s while Race kissed Elmer. But when Elmer pulled away, he and Albert looked at each other. Elmer raised his eyebrows, and Albert nodded kindly, cupping Elmer’s cheek in his hand and leaning in. 

-

If Elmer could have time traveled, he gladly would have taken the opportunity to let his high school self know what he now knew. Yeah, they would like him back. And yeah, it was as great as it sounded. He’d gotten pretty lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought of it with kudos and comments, and come talk to me on tumblr @spot-and-all-his-cronies or send me prompts @javidblue

**Author's Note:**

> Two things:  
> 1\. Prompts are closed on my tumblr, and will be for a few more days. I need to clear out my inbox and get through some of that before those go back up.  
> 2\. I might be cleaning up my ao3 account, getting rid of fics I'm not super proud of, etc. I'm going to make sure I save copies of all of them, so if you notice that one that you NEED for whatever reason is gone, message me on tumblr @javidblue and I'll send you a copy. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought!


End file.
